Slender Maze
by michael32998
Summary: This takes place near the end of the first Maze Runner novel, where the introduction of a new and dangerous character makes the escape from the Maze much more terrifying and life-threatening.


Thomas and Minho were spending the night in Maze, searching for a solution to the unsolvable puzzle. Thomas was running his hand on the Walls of the Maze, looking for a door to the end of the Maze. "This is a pile of klunk," Minho said annoyed, "there is no exit or end to this place."

"Well it's almost morning, let's start heading back to the –"As Thomas was speaking the section of wall he was leaning on gave way and he fell into a small room. Thomas opened his eyes and the room was empty, except for a note on the wall. Thomas looked at it closely and in messy hand writing it said 'Always Watching, No Eyes' and a picture of a man with no face. Confused and a little shocked by this, Thomas asked Minho "Uh… Do you know what this means?"

"Yeah, the man who lives here in the Maze probably wrote it." Minho answered nonchalantly.

"_What?" _Thomas exclaimed, surprised at this new information. "There's a man _living _in the Maze? Why did you not tell me about this?" Thomas took a deep breathe trying to take it all in. "Can he at least help us find a way to escape this place?"

"When you first got here do you remember us talking about Nick?" asked Minho

"Wasn't he the previous leader before Alby took charge?" replied Thomas.

"Yeah, everyone says he died from a Griever but…," Minho took a long pause "He died at the hands of that man you're talking about. So if you have some death wish shuck face, of course you can ask him to help us escape."

Thomas tried to hide his new fear of this man and immediately put the thought to the back of his mind, when suddenly he heard Teresa's voice inside his head.

_You doing okay out there, Thomas? _Asked Teresa.

_Yeah, did you find out anything new about the Maze?_

_Yup, I think Newt and the other Keepers found out how to escape, just come back to the Glade so we can - _Teresa's voice was cut off, and a new voice, a voice much deeper, a voice much more terrifying, crept into Thomas's mind.

**_There is no escape._** **_You and the rest of the Gladers will all die at my hands._**

Thomas freaked out, the powerful voice was still echoing in his head.

**_You and the rest of the Gladers will all die at my hands._**

The voice kept replaying this over and over again in his head, Thomas curled up in a fetal position, trying to block out the voice in his head. Every time it echoed, he winced. Eventually, he passed out.

Thomas opened his eyes and saw that he was in the Maze alone, facing a Wall, it was a dead end. He turned slowly around and there stood a man, a tall man, about eight feet tall, wearing a black suit, and what he believed were tentacles coming from the man's back, but his strangest and most terrifying feature, was that where his face was supposed to be, it was just a blank and featureless. Thomas backed into the Wall, staring at the man that stood in front of him. The man took a step towards Thomas, then another, every second feeling like an eternity. The same deep and terrifying voice from earlier emanated into Thomas's mind.

**_I'm coming to get you, Thomas._**

Thomas jolted up, and looked around to see that he was in Homestead. "It was only a dream" Thomas thought out loud.

"What dream?" asked a familiar voice.

Thomas bolted around and saw Minho standing there. Thomas took a deep breath and explained the voices in his head and the creature showing up in his dream.

"Well... it looks like you're shucked." Minho replied.

"I'm being serious, Minho," Thomas said annoyed, "I think this… _thing _is out to get us, and we have to warn the other Gladers"

"Calm down shuck face, you don't have to worry about Slenderman." Minho replied.

"But what about—"

Minho cut Thomas off, "Look, the other Gladers aren't going to go out in the Maze with us if they know about Slenderman, that creature you're talking about, that's why we won't tell them. The only other Gladers who know about Slenderman are the Keepers."

"Why would they have to go out in the Maze in the first place?" asked Thomas curiously.

"You've been out for a good while shuck face," Minho paused then continued "The other Keepers has already figured out how to escape this piece of klunk place. We go through the Griever hole tonight; we've already convinced the other Gladers to join us. Do not tell _anyone_ about this man, good that?"

"Good that." replied Thomas. A million thoughts still ran through Thomas's head, and suddenly the thought of going back out into the Maze where that creature was made him sick to his stomach. The image from his dream of the tall, slender, terrifying creature still burned in Thomas's mind, making him dread the moment when he and the other Gladers had to go into the Maze tonight.

A few hours had passed and the time for the Gladers' escape was quickly approaching. Thomas was sitting alone when he heard a voice inside his head, and to his pleasure, it was Teresa's.

_Thomas, go to the Homestead, the Keepers are having a gathering and want you there. It's almost time to leave._

_ Okay, I'm on my way. And Teresa, did Minho tell you about what's out in the Maze? _

_Yeah, just a bunch of Grievers and we have to run a lot but—_

_ No I meant did he tell you about anything about the man?_

_ What man?_

_ Never mind… and Teresa?_ A few minutes had passed and Thomas still waited for a reply, nothing. Thomas started to make his way to the Box, fearing what might happen to him and the other Gladers, his friends, in the Maze where that man, the man Minho referred to as Slenderman, lived.

Before he knew it, Thomas was already surrounded a dozen Keepers, all of them loudly talking about the escape.

"Everyone shut up!" Alby yelled at the top of his lungs, making everyone go silent. Thomas had known that Alby had anger problems, but ever since he had gone through the Changing, it had become much worse. "Greenie over here finally woke up." Alby stated.

There was a silence, only to be interrupted by Minho, "We have something to show you, shuck face…" Minho took a pause, "Because of your recent encounter with the notes and Slenderman, I think it's about time we showed you the rest of the notes."

"There's more?_" _Thomas whispered to himself. Minho leaned towards Thomas and handed him 5 pieces of paper. Thomas flipped through them, each containing the same scribbled drawing of Slenderman and a message. "Don't look or it takes you, Follows, No Escape, Can't Run, and this one just has a picture of Slenderman with scribbles all over it… what does this all mean?" Thomas asked curiously.

"Each has a word on the back, words like Float, Catch, Bleed, Death, and Stiff. We think this is code for something, and the only place we haven't checked out is the Griever hole… but there's one more note we have to get before we go in –"Minho was cut off by Thomas.

"Then why didn't we grab the last note when we had the chance?"

"Well if you didn't cut me off, I would've gotten to that, each time you take a note, Slenderman decides to show up. I was just trying to keep you alive. So tonight, before we go into the Griever hole, we grab the last note. Slenderman _will_ show up, so when whoever grabs the note, we hightail it out of there and make a b-line for the Griever hole. Got it? "

Thomas nodded, and with that, concluded the Gathering. Thomas anxiously waited for the night to come; he just wanted to get it over with, to get away from this place, to get away from Slenderman. Seconds felt like minutes, and minutes felt like hours, but the time had come, it was night time and the time to escape the Maze.

Thomas went to one of the gates where the rest of the Gladers had already gathered and quickly tried to find Chuck or Teresa. He pushed through the crowd, looking for one of his friends, making sure to avoid talking to Teresa telepathically, in fear that Slenderman would send him another message. As Thomas continued looking through the crowd of Gladers, he heard Newt's voice, loud enough so every Glader could hear.

"Remember when we go out there, we fight, we will show the Creators that they don't own us, and we will finally escape this living hell. Now the Keeper of the Runners has some life-saving advice for you whom have not been in the Maze before."

"Don't die." Minho said.

"Great, we're all bloody inspired Minho," Newt took a pause, preparing himself for what he was about to say, "Now let's go out there and escape!" Newt turned around and ran into the Glade and the Gladers followed. Minho immediately took the front of the line, leading the other Gladers towards the Griever Hole. Thomas kept up with Minho while the other Gladers dragged behind.

After running for a while, they reached their first destination, the small room containing the note. Thomas noticed the look of confusion on everyone's face; they had no idea what was going to happen. Thomas went into the small room and saw the note, "Always Watching, No Eyes." Thomas said aloud. Thomas picked up the note and put it in his pocket, and almost instantaneously, Thomas heard agonizing screams from outside of the small room.

Thomas ran out of the small room, and there stood the creature from his dream, _Slenderman. _Slenderman held 5 Gladers with his tentacles that came from his back and within a split second, they were snapped in half.

"Everyone run to the Griever hole!" Minho yelled. Thomas didn't have to think twice about it, he ran as fast as he could, leading the other Gladers to the Griever hole.

_What was that thing? _Teresa asked.

_Slenderman, there's no time to explain, we have to get to the Griever hole. _Thomas exclaimed.

_Left turn, right turn, now run straight through this corridor and make a left and we'll just have one straight run to the Cliff_. Thomas thought to himself_. _The toll of running this long had finally gotten to him and everyone else, but their escape was literally just right around the corner. They made the final turn, and Thomas stopped dead in his tracks. Slenderman, somehow being able to get ahead of them, was menacingly standing there, blocking the Gladers' path to the Griever hole.

Everyone was still, not making any movements at all, but one person took initiative and charged towards Slenderman. Thomas tried to stop him, but it was too late, Alby was already in the grasps of Slenderman. Newt ran towards Slenderman, but Thomas grabbed him, it was too late.

"I can't let him die for nothing." Minho said. Minho ran towards the Griever hole, dodging Slenderman's attempts at grabbing him, and before Thomas knew it, Minho disappeared into the Griever hole.

"We just have to wait for him to enter the codes and we're home –"Thomas cut himself off, "Crap! I have the last code! Teresa, you're coming with me into the Griever hole."

"Wait, what?" Teresa asked

Without explaining, Thomas grabbed Teresa and ran towards the Griever hole, and the other Gladers already were on the attack. Everywhere Thomas looked, he saw the bodies of lifeless Gladers, the only thing he could hear were agonizing screams, but he knew he had to keep going. He ran past Slenderman, and the jump to the Griever hole was the only thing standing in the way of him and freedom.

**_Forgetting something?_**

Thomas realized he was no longer holding on to Teresa, he turned around and saw Slenderman had her in his hands. Thomas bolted towards Slenderman, attacking him with everything he had, but it wasn't enough. Soon enough he held both of them, as if they weighed nothing, and Thomas could feel Slenderman slowly tightening his grip around his neck. This was it.

_Teresa, I don't think we have much time left. Since we don't have much time left I really want you to know that –_

Before Thomas could finish his message to Teresa, Chuck attacked Slenderman and Thomas felt Slenderman's grip loosen, and he was able to fight out of it of the grip and grab Teresa. He ran as fast he could towards the Griever hole, but he couldn't fight the urge, he looked back and saw that Chuck was dead; he sacrificed himself to save him and Teresa.

Thomas held back his tears, and jumped into the Griever hole with Teresa. They landed on the ground, and they were surrounded by dead Grievers.

"Well about time shuck face," he heard Minho say. Thomas turned around and saw he was at a computer. "Well what the hell are you waiting for? What's the code?"

Thomas pulled the note out of his pocket and turned it over. "It looks like it's written in blood…" Thomas stated

"I don't give a flying shuck, even if it is written in blood; just give me the –"Minho was cut off by Teresa's scream. Thomas could only look, Slenderman was dragging Teresa up out of the Griever hole, and she was too high up for anyone to reach.

"The last code is 'Push'!" Thomas yelled.

"It won't let me enter it!" Minho yelled back.

Thomas frantically looked around, searching for a way to stop Slenderman from taking away Teresa. At the corner of his eye, Thomas spotted a lever on the ground. He slid to his knees, and pushed with all the strength he had left. As he pushed down, a button that read "Kill The Maze" appeared right next to him. Thomas slammed his hand on the button, and turned around to see Teresa was on the ground. He ran down to her side and saw that she was breathing, she was okay.

"Well… are we the only ones left?" Thomas asked Minho.

"Looks like we are," Minho said, his sadness apparent in his voice.

They got up and saw that an entrance to the outside world had been open. Thomas helped Teresa help and they made their way towards the entrance.

"Forgetting about us?" said a familiar voice.

Thomas turned and saw Newt, Frypan, and 3 other Gladers that he doesn't know the names of. They were the survivors.

"We finally did it…" Thomas said proudly, "We've escaped the Maze."


End file.
